his initial omission and later reinstatement on Brazil's teamsheet became a subject of ongoing journalistic interest following the match, with analysis continuing more than 20 years later. Background The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th edition of the World Cup, FIFA's football competition for men's national teams, held in France between 10 June and 12 July 1998. The finals featured 32 teams for the first time, up from 24 in the 1994 World Cup. Both France and Brazil qualified automatically for the finals – France as tournament hosts and Brazil because they had won the tournament in 1994. The remaining 30 spots were decided through qualifying rounds held between March 1996 and November 1997, organised by the six FIFA confederations and involving 168 teams. In the finals, the teams were divided into eight groups of four with each team playing each other once in a round-robin format. The two top teams from each group advanced to a knock-out stage. The game was played at the Stade de France, in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, an 80,000-capacity stadium which was purpose-built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup because there were no previously existing venues large enough to accommodate the final. Brazil had won the previous World Cup in the United States in 1994, defeating Italy in a penalty shoot-out in the final after the match had finished 0–0 after extra time, the first ever goalless final. They began the 1998 tournament as favourites with Mário Zagallo, their manager, having been involved with all four previous Brazilian wins – as a player in 1958 and 1962, as manager in 1970 and assistant manager in 1994. France did not qualify for the 1994 tournament because they were eliminated in their qualifying group, finishing behind Sweden and Bulgaria. However, they had followed this up with a run to the semi-finals at UEFA Euro 1996, in which they were beaten in a penalty shoot-out by the Czech Republic. France's midfielder Zinedine Zidane had been tied for third place in the 1997 FIFA World Player of the Year contest and was labelled by former Brazilian forward Pelé as "one of the players to watch" at the 1998 World Cup. Before the tournament, Aimé Jacquet, the manager of France, told reporters that his team were "here to win the World Cup, nothing less". The two teams had met twice previously in the World Cup –